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"Curse you!" he gurgled "I will tell the Servants of Kerrigor! I will be revenged"

His grotesque, gulping voice was chopped off in mid-sentence, as Thralk lost free will Saraneth had bound hiripped him and Kibeth walked hi shadow si-dead corpse

Even though the revenant was gone, his last words troubled Sabriel The naor, while not exactly familiar, touched some basic fear in her, some memory Perhaps Abhorsen had spoken this naed to one of the Greater Dead The name scared her in the saible sy, a world where her father was lost, where she herself was terribly threatened

Sabriel coughed, feeling the cold in her lungs, and very carefully replaced Kibeth in the bandolier Her sword seemed to have burned itself clean, but she ran a cloth over the blade before returning it to the scabbard She felt very tired as she swung her pack back on, but there was no doubt in her mind that she mustin herin Death, soence at the broken stone

There had been too ic on this hill, and the night was yet to reach its blackest The inging around, the clouds regaining their superiority over sky Soon, the stars would disappear and the young moon would be wrapped in white

Quickly, Sabriel scanned the heavens, looking for the three bright stars that marked the Buckle of the North Giant’s Belt She found them, but then had to check the staras it cast a yellow flicker on the pages, for she didn’t dare use any ic till she ay from the broken stone The almanac showed that she had redom; its other name was Mariner’s Cheat In Ancelstierre, the Buckle was easily ten degrees west of north

North located, Sabriel started tofor the spur that slanted down to the valley lost in darkness below The clouds were thickening and she wanted to reach level ground before the ht disappeared At least the spur, when found, looked like easier going than the broken steps to the south, though its gentle slope proclai descent to the valley

In fact, it took several hours before Sabriel reached the valley floor, stu a little ways in front of her Too insubstantial to really ease her path, it had helped her avoid h to be taken for as or chance reflection In any case, it had proved essential when clouds closed the last reht, as she looked towards what she guessed was still north, searching for the red star, Uallus Her teeth were chattering and would not be stilled, and a shiver that had started with her ice-cold feet was repeating itself through every li, she’d simply freeze where she stood--particularly as the as rising once hed quietly, almost hysterically, and turned her face to feel the breeze It was an easterly, gaining strength with theit to the west--and there, in the first cleared broo red Sabriel smiled, stared at it, took stock of the little she could see around her, and started off again, following the star, a whispering voice constant in the back of her mind

Do not tarry, do not stop, no matter what happens

The sood cover of snow in each gutter, she skied, ood time

By the time Sabriel found the mile marker and the Charter Stone behind it, no trace of the sain, snowing sideways as the wind grewthem into her eyes, now the only exposed portion of her entire body Her boots were soaked too, despite the mutton fat she’d rubbed into the, and she was exhausted She’d dutifully eaten a little every hour, but now, simply couldn’t open her frozen jaws

For a short time, at the intact Charter Stone that rose proudly behind the s a Charter-spell for heat But she’d grown too tired to maintain it without the assistance of the stone, and the spell dissipated almost as soon as she walked on Only theThat, and the sensation that she was being followed

It was only a feeling, and in her tired, chilled state, Sabriel wondered if it was just i that o on

Do not tarry, do not stop, no matter what happens

The path from the Charter Stone was better made than the one that climbed Cloven Crest, but steeper The pathreyish rock, which did not erode like granite, and they had built hundreds of wide, low steps, carved with intricate patterns Whether these , Sabriel didn’t know They weren’t Charter e that she knew, and she was too tired to speculate She concentrated on one step at a tihing and gasping, head down to avoid the flying snow

The path grew steeper still and Sabriel could see the cliff-face ahead, a huge, black, verticalsnow than the clouded sky, palely backlit by the et any closer as the path switchbacked to and fro, rising further and further up from the valley below

Then, suddenly, Sabriel was there The path turned again and her little will-o’-the-wisp light reflected back from a wall, a wall that stretched for miles to either side, and for hundreds of yards upwards Clearly, these were the Long Cliffs, and the path had ended

Al with relief, Sabriel pushed herself forward to the very base of the cliff, and the little light rose above her head to disclose grey, lichen-veined rock But even with that light, there was no sign of a door--nothing but jagged, i up and out of her tiny circle of illuo

Wearily, Sabriel knelt in a patch of snow and rubbed her hands together vigorously, trying to restore circulation, before drawing Mosrael from the bandolier Mosrael, the Waker Sabriel stilled it carefully and concentrated her senses, feeling for anything Dead thatclose, but once again Sabriel felt so her, far down on the path Soe how distant the thing was, before forcing it froht be, it was too far away to hear even Mosrael’s raucous voice Sabriel stood up, and rang the bell

It , a noise that burst into the air and wove itself into the wind, echoing fro into the scream of a thousand birds